The first of July 1998 in the Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin's decree he was reinstated as the highest award of the country's Order of St. Andrew.
The Order was established by Peter the Great in 1698 year and lasted until 1917 of the year. Currently, Russia is the highest award.
Awarding of this Order is the highest recognition of the merits of the gentleman in front of the state and people. Moreover, among the awardees may be citizens of other countries, mostly leaders, having merits before the Russian Federation.
In the year of recovery awards, it became the first holders of the academician Dmitry Likhachev, gunsmith Mikhail Kalashnikov, as well as the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Another award, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, from the Order refused. According to the writer, he can not accept the highest award from the government, which has brought Russia "to its current disastrous state".
FROM 1998 , the Order of St. Andrew was handed over at least 17 time. Among the recipients also Russian Patriarch Alexis II (1999 year), President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev (2003 year), writer Sergei Mikhalkov (2008 year), Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (2011 year), Xi Jinping Chairman.
Besides, neopublykovannыm presidential decree in 2014 he was awarded with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
In total during the existence of the Order (from 1698 of the year) holders of the Order were about a thousand people.
